Meeting with bearded nonsense

The meeting with the owl, especially large, can leave few people indifferent. The owls are accurately recognized by an unusual look for birds - by a large head, by large eyes looking forward, surrounded by a facial disk, clearly standing out against the backdrop of a loose plumage of sides and the top of the head, according to a silent flight, according to the ability to easily turn the head by 300 ° or more. Only six types of owls live in our forests - a sparrowing, a furry owl, an eared owl, a gray, long -tailed and bearded owls, as well as an owl. The rest of the owls inhabit open spaces and editorial. Less often, it is necessary to meet with furry owl and bearded iconic, since their life is inextricably linked with the taiga. If the furry owl remains unnoticed by due to small sizes, the habit of hiding in hollows and night activity, then the bearded inquisition is indeed rare throughout the entire area of ​​its nesting. I was only two times lucky to watch the bearded inquisition in nature, I want to tell about these meetings.

The bearded nonsense belongs to our largest owls, the scope of its wings reaches one and a half meters, but the weight is small. Females weigh a little more than a kilogram, males - and even less, only 700–800 g. This is not enough, given that the eagle owl, only slightly exceeding the bearded inhabitation in size, weighs much harder - up to three kilograms! The difference in weight reflects the difference in the size of the muscles, and it could be assumed that lighter owls feed on weaker prey, but there is no direct connection here. Filin, indeed, is capable of hunting not only on a field and rats, but also on hares, partridges, ducks and even young deer and roeals. At the same time, a much smaller gray owl can take relatively large and risky prey. In England, for example, the gray -haired one regularly ruins the nests of the hawks, killing grown chicks. In the Bryansk Forest Reserve, at the end of January 2014, I found evidence of hunting this owl for Soyka. Lried deep snow, there were severe frosts and it was difficult for many birds to get food. One of the jacks was lucky to find an acorn, hidden, most likely, by it, at the side of the forest road. A hungry gray owl attacked Soyka, enthusiastic food. Jayka spun in the snow, trying to break free, but the owl did not unclench the claws, and the outcome of the struggle was predetermined. When I stumbled upon the place of this tragedy, in the snow, the political blood of Soyki, her feathers and the “signature” of the owl remained, according to which it was possible to determine it - a clear imprint of paws with two fingers sent back.

Knowing the habits of gray iliashitis, one does not have to be surprised that the larger and stronger long -tailed owl regularly includes protein, hazel grouse and even black grouse and young cape. But the bearded inquires, on the contrary, feeds exclusively with mouse -like rodents. This habit, which does not allow it to switch to replacing types of feed, forces the owls regularly migrated from the nesting places to relatively feed areas. The American zoologist Robert Nero, who studied these owls in the 1970s, found that in winter hungry birds are so passionate about the search for prey that they allow them to catch them with almost naked hands. Catching bearded inhabitations for annoying, Nero lured them into a trap with a toy mouse, which was dragged through the snow with the help of spinning. If a real mouse was used as a bait, then the hunting owl at the time of the throw was simply covered with a net.

Unfortunately, in the vicinity of Moscow, bearded owls, even on nomads, appear infrequently, and single pairs remain nesting. In the European part of Russia, bearded nonsense with relatively large numbers nest only in the Arkhangelsk region, where a couple from a couple can settle at a distance of about 30 km. By the time I myself managed to meet these owls in the European North, I already had experience in acquaintance with the bearded nonsense. This happened at the southern border of the spread of the Owl, in the Amur Region. June 3, 2014. Finishing the observations of foam on the edge of Marie in the Antonov forestry of the Khnggan reserve, I saw a large owl, which flew out of the small -collection in the thickening twilight. Although I flew out directly to me, this meeting was so unexpected that I did not have time to really examine it and determined the owl not by the characteristic yellow iris of the eye or concentric circles on the facial disk, but by the color of the feathers surrounding - white, and not gray, like that of long -stole -toed illegitimate. In the following days, I have repeatedly met in the groves of Lake Kleuschensky long -tailed inaccules with the broods of grown chicks, but I could not find a bearded owl there.

It is always annoying to see a rare bird only once, and then briefly. I had to wait two years before I managed to consider the bearded owl closer. In July 2016, I participated in the environmental shift in a children's camp on the territory of the Kenozersky National Park, near Kargopol, conducted excursions there, showing schoolchildren of birds and traces of animals. On July 16, along with a group of camp participants, with the counselors and teachers, we left the village of Maselga to the Porzhensky graveyard - the monument of architecture of the XVIII century, recently restored. The path was short, more than 15 km along the forest road, and we stopped resting halfway at the abandoned village of Dumino. While lunch was preparing, the schoolchildren and I walked around the village and in its nearest environs. It was mid -day, heat, and the birds managed to see a little. On the way back, I released the children with the counselor for lunch and turned into a swampy birch bark, from where the hoarse cries came who interested me. I could not understand which bird published them. Together with the director of the camp, Tatyana Kozinskaya, we did not go through hundreds of meters from the road, as we saw an adult bearded, who was sitting on high dry stump. The huge owl sat silently and seemed to not pay us due attention. Looking at us fluently, she began to look at the sidelines, and I had to make a thin squeak with lips, reminiscent of a squeak of mice so that the owl turned to us again, allowing myself to photograph. In my youth, luring so gray, I almost lost my eyes when the owl flew out to me in thick twilight, already released my claws and barely managed to slow down and turn away from my face itself. But in the light of the day, such manipulation of the owl seemed safe. Indeed, a huge bird did not think to fly away from a comfortable perch. The owl let us get close, sat for a long time, but then, finally, she ruffled the feathers, released a stream of litter in our direction and flew thirty meters.

A hoarse cry repeated, and we, approaching, saw the Birch of the Council sitting in the crown of the crown. I had to see adult bearded inquisitions in captivity earlier, but I met the Office for the first time. Usually the bindings look like cute fluffy balls with huge touching eyes, but this teenager was rather ridiculous and ugly. The streamlined shape and large sizes of bearded owls are created by a magnificent plumage, and the owl, already losing fluff, but still not really operated, looked strange - with a huge beak and bulging eyes on an unexpectedly small head. Having shut up, the owl began to examine us, hiding behind the barrel of birch. Another chick, sitting a little higher, peeked out of the foliage.

The bearded nonsense refers to birds who boldly protect their chicks. Owls do not leave their nest when the enemy appears, circle nearby, shout, and can launch claws, trying to hit a four -legged predator or person. It is believed that such courage allows them to drive away even bears from the nests. At the same time, for poachers-hunters, nesting pairs of bearded inquisitions who are not afraid of a person become easy prey. If you do not climb a tree with a nest, the attacks of the owl can not be afraid. Preferring to populate the old nests of the hawks and kanyuk, bearded to osen only occasionally nesting on the ground, and she rarely has to protect the little chicks from a person. Those who still had to become an object of attack of this owl talk about her strength, that in the event of such an attack, sometimes they can’t stay on their feet. But when the chicks grow up, parents stop protecting them so zealously. He flew off from his perch to an inaccurate did not return when we headed to her chicks. The chicks were not afraid of us and did not call our parents, and only one of them flew over, noting that we were distracted for a minute. He did it completely silently, just like an adult bird, but moved not far, and soon we found him again.

After a couple of hours, we returned to the family of inquisitions already with a group of schoolchildren and adults, only more than 30 people. The chicks sat in their former places, like an adult bird, and did not panic, finding such a crowd of curious. The bearded nonsense provided me with one of the most successful and memorable ornithological excursions.

Pavel Kvartalnov
Photo by the author